Northern Ont. interests lacking in budget, critics say

Northern leaders say infrastructure, home care, Ring of Fire not given enough focus in Ont. budget

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and Finance Minister Charles Sousa. Sousa said, with the most recent budget, the province is committed to helping all the people of Ontario and to eliminating the deficit by 2017-18. Critics in northern Ontario say that help doesn't appear to support northern Ontario's interests. (CBC)

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Sudbury's mayor says she would have liked more of a focus on northern Ontario in the provincial budget.

Marianne Matichuk was at Queen's Park when the province presented its bill yesterday. If the budget passes, the government will spend $100 million dollars on infrastructure in rural and northern Ontario, but Matichuk said the region's crumbling infrastructure needs more attention.

"We have very, very small tax bases," she said. "Yet we're the places in Ontario that are actually giving a lot of taxes to the province through mining and other things in northern Ontario, and they're growth areas."

Matichuk said she will be speaking with the province's Minister of Infrastructure on Friday and will ask Glen Murray about securing funding for the Maley Drive extension in Sudbury.